


Just because you say...

by Kuro_Guardian



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Disabled!Tony, Gen, Hurt Tony, Lots of moving parts here, Major Character Injury, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Tags May Change, Tony does what he has to, Tony-centric, Warnings May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 13:04:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12631635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuro_Guardian/pseuds/Kuro_Guardian
Summary: There will come a time when people will ask themselves - “Would it have been kinder if Anthony Edward Stark had died in Siberia?” And the damning thing about this question is not that it has been asked, but that most people couldn’t tell you who it would have been kinder to.





	Just because you say...

As things go having your name dragged through the mud is something most people fear, but that’s only because they live small lives that don’t bear observation. At least that’s what Tony had always said, usually while wearing a devil-may-care grin. He’s not smiling now and he may never smile properly again. They won’t know until they peel away the frost blackened skin to see what still lives under it.

The doctors are cautiously optimistic regarding his chances of survival, but they are far more conservative regarding his post-operational results. Oh, they had been professional enough not to lie; any idiot could see that there would be “extensive scarring and serious loss of mobility”. But they don’t know if there’s been brain damage. Don’t know how functional he’ll be mentally and emotionally.

They advise seeking psychological care for him should he awake. They advise looking into long-term care solutions. They advise contacting his lawyers to see what he has set up in case of sudden death and/or permanent mental debilitation. They advise many things and it is only the fact that Tony legitimately has no one else that keeps her here and fairly calm.

Rhodes would be here to assist, but he’s dealing with his own issues right now. Vision is not currently considered a person by most people and Pepper feels like that is something she needs to fix, but she doesn’t want to. She wants nothing to do with this. This - the oddly shortened form on the bed before her. This - the brazen article on the tablet her trembling hand can barely hold. This - the constant vibrating of her phone as the Board makes demands.

When she told Tony that she couldn’t live like this... Exhaling slowly Pepper conciously tries to relax her shoulders. She needs to be calm - she owes it not just to herself and Tony, but to the men and women who rely on Stark Industries for employment. There are also the families who after the events of the “Civil War” need the support of Stark Industries’ supported charities. She can’t panic. She can’t - not yet.

But she can’t play the savior to Tony’s martyr. She can’t bathe his forehead, while battling the monsters of this world. And so she won’t. What she will do is try to find out YNX’s source for these pictures. And if she can’t do that then she will see their offices burn... perhaps literally if Friday will help. And here Pepper can feel a tension headache trying to bloom between her eyes. Friday has been very quiet and that doesn’t bode well for anyone.

“Oh, well. That’s not really my problem. Not anymore.” And with a shrug Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts walks away. She will not be back. Meanwhile in the cold room Tony blinks once and then twice before swallowing what might have been a sob. There isn’t time for that - something is coming and before the world burns he will see his vengeance taken out of every miserable hide he can get to.

  
===

 

YNX doesn’t reveal sources - that’s the long and the short of it. It’s simply business. If people feared the consequences of their asshole acts they wouldn’t give away the information and pictures YNX based their bread and butter on. Of course, that means very little when you’re looking a HD-quality video of a “freak” accident involving a recent informer.

“Freak accident” and a real tragedy besides - the young couple involved having just moved into a neighborhood that used to be grand. Not that it was bad or anything - quiet and mostly respectable with white picket fences and two-story brick homes. Such a shame the neighbors kept saying, but no one knows the full details because the fire burned too hot and heavy to leave any.

Now all things being equal Gabriel knows that sometimes weird shit happens. Knows that coincidences are a dime a dozen in life. But you don’t get to where he has without knowing that some coincidences are man-made and where there is one there is surely another. So Gabriel knows that he’s got a good chance of being fucked right about now.

Unless he can get in front of this - and even as his hands are snatching up his phone the lights cut out. “Hey Gabe - you pay the fucking light bills man?” And that’d be funny if it didn’t feel like rope pulled tight around his scrawny throat. “Shit! The breaker ain’t doing nothing. Gabe! Who we gotta call?” And someone says Ghostbusters to general laughter, but there isn’t anything to laugh about.

Not like he can blame Stark. Everyone knows that fucker is still in the hospital. Hell, they just did an update a couple of hours ago. Fuck, they just spent half an hour making jokes about how much shorter Stark has to be now that he’s missing most of his legs. Had just made jokes about how Tony Stark isn’t going to be a playboy in the future considering what his face looks like now. May had everyone in stitches when she asked if Fury or Stark would pull off the eye-patch look better.

What had been nervous laughter and lame jokes is now people getting angry and worried, and still Gabrial sits in the dark clutching his phone. A bead of sweat runs into his eye and he almost cries. Wiping his forehead with his t-shirt all he can think about is how he should have listened to his mother. She said nothing good would come of this. Had said that rich men like Stark had a power he couldn’t dream of.

He’d laughed at her, but he wasn’t laughing much now.

 

===

Then the bottom falls out of the stock market as Virgina "Pepper" Potts formally resigns as CEO of Stark Industries effective immediately - but not before severing ties between SI and Tony Stark's everything... including his patents.

**Author's Note:**

> I legitimately don't know where this story came from, but it should be fun - when I have time for it. I'm waist deep in finishing up my first commercial book. wish me luck on that - but I'll at least try to work on some of my stories on here.


End file.
